Documents / Hearing transcript
This FAA compilation, released through the National Archives and The Black Vault, covers Japan Airlines Flight 628's sighting over Alaska on January 11, 1987. It includes an FAA incident report dated February 1987, a chronology of the communications between the crew and Anchorage ARTCC, and statements from controllers and a meteorologist. Radar showed no traffic near the aircraft apart from weather clutter. The report says Captain Terauchi later believed the lights were village lights distorted by ice crystals.
-' ~ lot. lot. c . a: 0 ...a: -c JAPAN AIRLINES #628 , January ll.J,--. 1987, Captain Terauchi ~ -~ 10. TYPE 1 . CONTROL/COMMUNICATION FAC ILITY ~ ~ErAfllTUP'IE P'OINT/OATE/TIME 7 . P'IADAR COVERAGE OYEs li]NOAnchorage ARTCC ~:J> ESTINATION ETA OR ATA 8 . RADAR CONTROL.2. FLIGHT PLAN/CL.EARANCE U1FR QYESOvFR ~NO 3 . TAKEOFF GROSS WEIGHT/C .G . 6. LAST COMMUNICATION (Position. Time, Altitude) APPROACH 1. PIC 2. SIC 3. FE NAME Kenivu Terauchi Hiratsuka Okudaira DATE OF BIRTH / AGE CERTIFICATE NO. AND TYPE DATE OF LAST MEDICAL > HO URS THIS MAKE / MODEL CZ: HOURS LAS T 90 DAYS - MAKE/MODEL 0 t; TOl Al HOUP.S LAST 90 DAYS : :i TOTAL HOUR S ~ t--D~U~T...cY-=-T~IM...::..:E~l~La~s-t-~-4 -H_a_u-rs-, ------+----------+----------~---------......1 w a: RATINGS u PROFICIENC Y CHEC K OATE ! ROUTE CHEC K DATE_ _ _ _ ~~----11-------------1~---------+----~------I 1 SIM\.J ~ ·'\TOR CHECK i I SEAT OCCUPI ED I --+----II D OMICILE ICiry andSrar,·1 : n T...,E q s r t.: · Fv ~ I 1 PASSENGERS : 2 EQUI PME NT !3 ENVIRONMENT !4 INVESTIGATION IY ES! NO ~ H oBEsF 1 I sEATs i--~M O KE I \JT..?.!:'. N o T1F1_E_D___ ________--1---+...cx:...:._...i ~ . , , ,\C~ED REST RA I NTS 1 FUMES VO I CE RE COR'.J ER REVIEW X z - L_TsuND : E x.Ts __I 1 _: 1.~~ -- ___ .L' · LICHT Rt.r.oR~~~ qEv_1Ew______...__..__X__. ~ i I IN FANT : SL IC lS I 4 LIGhTS i OFFICE IN v Es ~: G A TI ON x ::i I I : ! RAFTS _ _ ~_=rt-· -~ -~ SCE•·-, E-I N-' \-, E-S_T_l_S_A_T_l_O_•l---------~-x--1 :C : \ I j VESTS 1 ' : I i . REPORT suE1M1TTED B Y Michael Post 1 s . s c i.;RcE ':' F 1..._Fo rrew JnterviPw lfJ 'i 1"'4 ~ . 2 . OFF 1cE AAL-FSD0-63 ! 6 . F AA c oo RD1 1'i ATOR 1N v ESTK Adams f.. A F11 er - -.c 3 . DATE 2/20/87 I 7. N TSB 1Nv EST 1GATOR none w > ~ ct . ! ~~I z . <1 . D1STR 1BuT 10 N AV'N-120 thru AAL-250, cy: -AAL-~$Ci RELATED REP O RTS .... ~...,.,, Captain Terauchi reported seeing a group of unusual lights appear in front of his aircraft at what ·appeared to be approximately 2,000 feet below his altitude of FL37 0 , and then dis appeared under the nose of the airplane at approximately 240 nautical miles north of Nenana, Alaska. This phenomenon occurred again at approxi mately 151 nautical miles north of Nenana but this time the lights appeared at his 10 : 00 position and slowly moved to the 9:00 and 8:00 positions before dis- appearing. During an interview with the flight crew conducted at Anchorage, it was noted that the aircraft flight path was north of and directly over the villag1 of Arctic Village, Alaska at the time of the first sighting and 45 naut ical miles northwest and west of the village of Fort Yukon duri ng the second sighting. Captain Terauchi now believes that the unusual lights he saw were those village lights that had been obscured or changed by ice crystals present in the atmospher1 . ! n U.S GPO 1981 · 775-536'115
Hearing transcript, cited by the archive. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. 14 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.